Police say ATM stolen using forklift and pickup

A stolen automated teller machine was discovered by Joliet police Tuesday in a parking lot in the back of a pickup truck that also had been stolen.

Police said the ATM was stolen by forklift early Monday from the drive-through of a Numark Credit Union branch in the 1600 block of Terry Drive, a relatively remote spot. The thieves stole the forklift and the truck from a landscaping business across the street, Joliet police Sgt. Gary Baggett said.

The thieves used the forklift to tear the ATM from a concrete wall and place it in the truck, Baggett said.

An alarm went off immediately, but the truck was gone when police arrived. About $50,000 was in the ATM, but it was not clear whether any money was removed, bank officials said.

Police found the ATM and the truck Tuesday in a parking lot 3 or 4 miles from the bank, police said.

Bank officials said they were shocked that anybody could remove such a heavy machine.

"Even the people that built the machine and put the alarm on said, `No, there's no possible way they could have done that,'" said Kelly Thomason, chief operations officer at the credit union. "It's a 2-ton machine. It was not easy for them to do."

Chris McGoey, president of McGoey Security Consulting in California, said ATM thefts are not unheard of but have become less common as the banking industry has taken steps to prevent them.

"They've been stolen with tow trucks before, they've been rammed with trucks before, they've tried to ram them out with saws," he said. "Over the years, banks have learned how to fortify them better."